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By Barbara SurkAssociated Press • Tuesday February 12, 2013 6:41 AM

Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoGaia Anderson | Associated PressSyrians near the Cilvegozu customs gate at the Turkey-Syria border are seen soon after a car bomb exploded near Reyhanli, Hatay, Turkey. Twelve people died in the blast, and 28 were wounded.

BEIRUT — Syrian rebels captured the country’s largest dam yesterday after days of intense
clashes, giving them control over water and electricity supplies for much of the country in a major
blow to President Bashar Assad’s regime.

The rebels already had seized two other dams on the Euphrates River. But the latest conquest,
the al-Furat dam in northeastern Raqqa province, was a major coup for the opposition. It handed
them control over water and electricity supplies for both government-held areas and large swaths of
land the opposition has captured in 22 months of fighting.

Two separate car bombings in northern Syria killed a total of 26 people. Both were blamed on
Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaida-linked militant group.

The rebels have had their biggest success in the civil war across Syria’s north including Idlib,
Raqqa and Aleppo provinces, all bordering Turkey.

Rami Abdul-Rahman, a Britain-based activist with the group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights,
said rebels took control of al-Furat dam around midday after successfully pushing out a group of
Assad loyalists from the control room. Most of the regime troops in the area had stopped fighting
on Sunday after the fall of the nearby town of al-Thawra, Abdul-Rahman said.

The rebel assault on the dam was led by Jabhat al-Nusra.

The government did not confirm that it had lost control of the dam.

This month, the Observatory said rebels seized another smaller dam in Raqqa province, the Baath
dam, named after Syria’s ruling party. In November, Syrian opposition fighters captured Tishrin
hydroelectric dam near the town of Manbij in northern Aleppo province, which borders Raqqa.

Members of Jabhat al-Nusra, which the U.S. has branded a terrorist organization, have been among
the most effective fighters in the battle to oust Assad. The group had led battles for the other
two dams, and was also a decisive force in the opposition’s successful attacks on regime army bases
outside major cities, including the capital, Damascus, and Aleppo in the north.

One of the car bombs exploded near a border crossing with Turkey in Idlib province. Bulent
Arinc, Turkey’s deputy prime minister, said 12 people were killed — nine Syrians and three Turks.
He said 28 people were wounded, nine of them Turks. The vehicle that exploded had a Syrian license
plate, he added.

Turkey’s NTV said most of the victims were Syrians who had been waiting to enter Turkey.
Witnesses said it struck a spot where humanitarian aid is loaded onto Syrian vehicles.